The Accident
by Ninjagirl2211
Summary: There are a lot of deadbeat dads out there — mine included.


**The Accident**

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**Chatper 1**: "_**Never argue with and idiot**. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience._" —_Greg King_

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There are a lot of deadbeat dads out there—mine included. Granted, I never really cared about that sort of thing too much growing up. I had my mom, and she loved me, and we had each other, and that was all I ever needed. I didn't even realize there was anything specifically _wrong_ with it until I got to know other kids my age, and even then, I was simply known as _that_ girl—the girl with only one parent. I didn't even know who the hell my dad _was_ until he just suddenly _showed up_ _one day_. I'd just turned eight years old a few days before.

"What's your name, Kid?"

I stared at him skeptically for a few seconds, a bit wary of his bizarre looking appearance—did he think he was a ninja, or something?—and replied resolutely, crossing my arms over my chest, frowning darkly, "Mom says I shouldn't talk to weirdoes."

"Eh?" He sounded insulted, "Brat, do you even know who you're talking to?"

I arched a pale white brow—the same color as my hair—at him dubiously, "A weirdo? I'm going to get yelled at again…"

"So you get yelled at a lot, huh? Cheeky little brat…" He crossed his arms too, mirroring me, "Where's your old lady at?"

"Work." I persisted with the dubious observation, peering up at the tall man cynically, "You're old too, you know. Shouldn't you be working like the rest of the old people, instead of standing around being so carefree, and talking to 'cheeky brats?'"

He suddenly held two fingers in my face and I idly noticed an inky swirl on his palm, "First of all," he put down one finger, "I'm _not_ that old. Second," The next finger went down, and he then held out both hands as if presenting me the world with a huge grin, "I'm _always_ working, Kid. When you're a bestselling author like me, there's 'research' to be done _everywhere_."

I raised both brows, mildly intrigued, and inquired curiously, "So you make stories? What are they about, then?"

"A kid like you wouldn't understand." His grin turned smug, "My work is for adults _only_."

"Oh." I rolled my eyes, "_That_. Don't worry. I get it."

"Why do you sound so judgmental? You're just like that old lady of yours." He sneered ridiculously.

It's good that I knew to take that as a compliment, and smirked, "My 'old lady' is the coolest old lady _ever_, so I'm good with that. I'll bet I can tell a story ten times as popular as _yours_."

"Big words, Brat." He smirked back, "How do you plan on doing that when you don't even have one?"

"I do too have one!" I protested, balling my fists and glaring angrily at him.

"Oh yeah? What's it about?" He towered over me, grinning condescendingly, and that just pissed me off. So, what to do?

I pulled it out of my ass, of course, "A monster! His name is Kaiju, and nobody likes him, 'cause he…err, eats people, and…umm…smells really bad, and stuff…?" It honestly didn't sound that bad when it was still in my head. I couldn't really blame the guy for laughing. I endured it silently, glowering up at the man with clenched fists and a dark expression, grumbling, "Yeah, well, I'll get better at it. You'll see someday…" I then proceeded to slink off moodily. I was an angsty little booger back then…

"Hey!" He called at my back after he stopped laughing, "Where are you going, Kid?"

I glared back at him over my shoulder and supplied sarcastically, "I need to go take over the world now. Don't get in my way." He didn't laugh, so I think he was still trying to work out whether I was serious or not as I walked off towards the playground to meet Asa-chan.

I didn't see him again for a couple of days after that, though I woke up the night after to an earth shattering crash, and heard Mom screaming at something downstairs. I was too afraid to venture out of my room, but I heard plenty of new profanity that I wanted to write down somewhere for future reference, and a familiar man's voice, though I couldn't quite place it at the time… I knew better than to ask about it the next day, even though I knew the confrontation had everything to do with me, and someone who wasn't allowed to be near me under penalty of a _very_ nasty death…

I tried not to mind it too much and went on with my normal routine. Mom had to head to work early to commute to the city, and was out the door in a hop, skip, kiss, and a jump. We didn't get to spend a lot of time with each other, but I treasured the morning hugs, and even the goodbyes. Days off were rare for her with the exceptions of birthdays and other special events, otherwise I was left to my own devices on weekends, and of course there was school during the week—which I utterly _despised_…

I was always so _bored_. The reason being was that class was repetitive. I'd been told the reason for this was because students learn through repetition, but I'd never found that to be the case with me… I learned more through visual means, and hands on teaching. I only needed to hear it once, so repetition was a bit asinine. Needless to say, I never handed in homework. Weirdo was right about me getting yelled at all the time—usually by more than one person. It's not like I deliberately _tried_ to piss people off…it just sort of…happened. Something about me just seemed to rub most people the wrong way…

I sighed and stared idly out the window by my desk as Touka-sensei's garbled voice blended blearily into the background area of my prioritization, so, naturally, my attention span was at an all-time zero percent. That was until I spied what was either a very deformed _stork_ in the tree growing beside the three story school building, or the weirdo I'd run across a few days before. I stared as he grinned with a wave seeing that he'd successfully gained my attention. For some reason, bemused at the thought of a full grown man such as him actually rolling up his sleeves and _climbing_ up such a tall tree, I waved back slowly without thinking, blinking owlishly with bewilderment.

He then moved to tap the imaginary watch on his wrist and motioned with his thumb over his shoulder in a questioning gesture, the meaning clearly obvious, 'what time do you get out?' I don't know exactly why—though it might have had something to do with the fact that it's not every day you see a weirdo waving to you in a fifty foot tree—but I made a morose face and signed him the number three twice, sticking a zero with all five fingers on the end, '3:30' It was twelve o'clock at the time. He sort of gave a funny little snort and looked to be failing _brilliantly_ at hiding amusement at my compulsory imprisonment.

My relatively irritated face then morphed into a full on snarl, with dirty nails scraping the surface of my desk as I tightly clenched my fist, and grated out furiously in a low, dark voice, "Why…you…kooky, old _Bast_—"

"Kaiyako." Touka-sensei's sharp voice brought my attention back to the front of the class room, "Is there something more interesting outside of that window than geometry?"

I refrained to point out that _everything_ was more interesting than geometry, as my eyes darted back towards the window, but was shocked to see absolutely no one there. Scowling, I grumbled, "There was a really ugly bird in the tree. But it's gone now…"

A couple of my classmates giggled, and Asa-chan gave me a curious look from her assigned seat across the room, but Touka-sensei just gave me a stern look and shook his head, "Focus, Kaiyako, _focus_…"

However, I was anything _but_ focused at the time, peering out at the empty tree again critically. Had it just been a figment of my imagination…? I'd heard of other kids with imaginary friends, though I highly doubted it was anything like this… I found it much more likely that I was going insane like those lunatics Mom told me about in the nuthouse, but… No. Not yet. I refused to believe it.

"I have to pee." I declared firmly and loudly, standing up to face Touka-sensei as if issuing a challenge. And, as he moved to return that challenge, I squared my feet and narrowed my olive eyes for the kill shot, "Although I could go right here if you _really_ want me to. I've got no problem with—"

"_GO_." He cut me off, pointing at the door with his chalk stick as my classmates burst out into full-blown laughter, "_Quickly_. And don't you _dare_ make any trouble!"

I gave Asa-chan a wink, to which she rolled her eyes as I hightailed it out the door. She knew I wouldn't be back, and I darted around walls and teachers covertly as I made my way down to the cubbies, grabbed my bag, and maneuvered my way expertly out a first floor window—I felt like a ninja. Though, as I stuck the landing and made to run off home-free, I ran into something very solid and person-shaped…

"Ha!" I jumped back up from where I'd fallen in a flash, "I _knew_ you'd be out here, you Weirdo! You're one of Mom's stalker guys, right? Aren't you!?"

"Hey, stop calling me that! And you know, it's a little bit concerning that you'd skip school to be around someone you think is a _stalker_—which I'm _not_, but _still_… You're a strange little brat." He crossed his arms and sent me a stern look, "You could get into big trouble if you're not careful. Unlike me, some people might not be as friendly…"

"I'm _always_ in trouble. A little more won't make a difference to someone like me, cause I'm the _best_ at being in trouble." I pointed out astutely, mirroring his confident crossed arms pose, "'Sides, you can't tell me what to do! Who do you think you are anyway, the _Daimyo_?" I stuck my tongue out at him.

And with that, I was promptly subjected to the most ridiculous self-introduction I'd ever witnessed in my eight years of life. Sure, I liked to make poses too, and practiced in front of the mirror at home simply out of boredom, but this…this was on a whole 'nother _level_ of weird. It was as if he'd _perfected_ it, making stupid poses into an _art_, and even threw in some _hair flips_ here and there. At the end of it, I hadn't even taken in a single word he'd said, staring dumbfounded, my face slack.

Unfortunately, my silence was somehow interpreted as admiration, "Struck speechless, eh? It's understandable, after all—I've won the hearts from ladies of every age all around the world—"

"I'm leaving." I announced. Some things just can't be unseen. Though, come to think of it, maybe that was done purposely…

"Oi, Brat! Didn't you even pay attention to a single word?" He called after me.

"No." I called back promptly, and truthfully, "I was too distracted by the weirdo dancing around in front of me. I'm going home so I can decontaminate myself." If this was a hallucination, then I _really_ needed to get my head checked.

"Why you little…" He sighed, shaking his head, "Well, then I guess you don't need the present I was going to give you."

I stopped in my tracks, turning to stare back over my shoulder at him with a genuinely wounded expression. If there was one thing in this world I couldn't resist, it was the promise of presents. It wasn't actually even the promise of a present that made the prospect irresistible, it was the curiosity. I always had to figure things out. If I didn't, it would itch away just under my skin like bugs crawling on me right out of reach. Mom said I would make a perfect detective one day as soon as I learned how to implement a thing called tact…

I walked backwards until I was back in reach and grumbled irritably, "What is it?"

He gave a funny little laugh while reaching into the sleeveless, red haori he wore over his greenish kimono shirt, "You better be grateful that I'm such a generous guy, Kid. Make sure you say 'thank you' when someone gives you something as awesome as—"

"'The hell is that?" I interrupted him with an unpleasant expression as his hand emerged with something that looked very suspiciously like a book, "You expect me to read it? I hate books!"

"Ehhhh?" He looked dumbfounded for a second, "How can you say you hate books when you told me just the other day that you were going to write a story 'ten times as popular' as _my_ series?"

I crossed my arms brattishly, "I _said_ I was going to _tell_ a story. Nobody ever said _nothing_ about writing no _damn book_."

Later, I would realize exactly how much idiocy it really took to make this man block his eyes from the disgrace in front of him and say, "Lord, save me from idiots…" He then gave me a look and questioned, "Kid, do you even realize how much sense that doesn't make?"

"Your _face_ is the thing that doesn't make sense! And you know what? You're _right_! I don't make sense either, so _I'm_ the only one who could come up with something as ridiculous as your face!" I concluded my tangent, pointing at him victoriously with, "As I thought, you're a figment of my imagination, aren't you!? _That's_ why no one else can see you, and _that's_ why you were hanging out in a fifty foot tree outside the window! Ha! You can't trick me, Mr. Weirdo, so just disappear!"

"Humph," He straightened his haori disdainfully, "well, if that's what you think, maybe I will." And with that simple statement said, he was gone in a puff of smoke.

Coughing, and fanning the air that was choking me, I didn't even realize that someone was running towards me until I heard Asa-chan's voice, "Whoa! That was so _cool_! Kaiya-chan! You didn't tell me you actually knew a real live _ninja_!"

When the smoke finally cleared I moved to stare at her slowly over my shoulder, "…You mean…you actually _saw_ him?"

"Mmhm." She pointed to the spot where he disappeared, "He was kind of hard to miss…which actually doesn't seem very ninja-ish if you ask me…"

There was a bit of a strange sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I stared down at the small book on the ground and knelt to pick it up. Asa went on thoughtfully, "Ne…who was that guy anyway?"

"…I really have no idea." I told her truthfully, though a tiny foreboding voice in the back of my head was telling me otherwise. I ignored it. "But, more importantly…what are you doing out here Asa-chan?"

Her childishly cute, round face then split into an adorable grin, "Well…umm…can I play hooky with you?"

We'd only known each other for a few months, since the beginning of the school year, but we were already best friends. Asa was usually pretty shy around people she didn't know very well—other than me, and it was certainly no challenge to get to know someone like me—so she'd get bullied a lot. That's where I came in. If anyone tried to pick on _my_ Asa, they were dead, courtesy of Kaiyako. I'd even taped up a warning sign on her desk, so nobody had any right to complain once they were sore and beaten up. Why did I defend her, you may ask? Well…Asa was really cute…hehehe…

Absentmindedly slipping the little book in my bag, I grabbed her hand with a wild grin of my own, "Oooookay! Let's go play on The Hill!"

Laughing, we both ran off at full speed. "The Hill" was a bit of a generic term. Technically, the entire town was located on top of a hill. So, what I meant when I said "The Hill" was this giant, downwards slope that inclined just off the edge of town, where you could see a bunch of patchwork farms out in the distance, dotted with groves of trees, and green, green, green. It was covered in soft grass and clover where Asa and I would take turns rolling down the slope at otherwise dangerous speeds had there been anything to impede us. It was also, incidentally, a great view of the sunset from the top, where a large tire-swing hung from an ancient looking tree. This was where Asa and I sat together at the end of the day, utterly tired out, covered in grass—a day well spent.

"I wish _every_ day could be like this." I smiled softly as I eyed the dying sun, and heard the cicadas crying from the trees. The fireflies were just beginning to come out as I turned to my companion, "And I'm always happy when Asa is here. You should play hooky with me more often, 'cause it's more fun this way when I'm with you."

She smiled shyly, "But…technically, I'm supposed to be out _looking_ for you. That's the only reason Touka-sensei let me get away with it…hehe. I'm not as daring as Kaiya-chan." Her eyes creased and she tilted her head, causing a little of her long, fine, chestnut hair to fall over her shoulder, illuminated by the faint, glowing backdrop of the disappearing sun, "And you know…my parents would get mad… And we wouldn't be allowed to play anymore…ne?"

I stuck my tongue out defiantly as I imagined Asa's stick-in-the-mud parents, and protested, "No matter what they say, I'll still find a way to be with Asa, 'cause Asa is my precious person, and no one can take you away from me. I'll protect you forever." I held out my pinky finger for a promise and locked it with hers, "No matter what, 'kay?"

She laughed—it sounded like bells, "'Kay. I believe you Kaiya-chan."

I laughed too and warned, "You _better_. You remember what happened last time with Hikaru…?"

She tried not to, she really did, but even gentle natured Asa couldn't hold back a snicker at poor Hikaru's expense. Mom said sometimes, when a boy likes a girl, they make fun of her. I thought that was stupid, and so no matter how much Hikaru liked Asa, I wouldn't stand for his antics. Actually, even if Hikaru brought Asa _flowers_ instead of sticking bugs in her outdoor shoes during lunch hour, I'd still kick his ass. Asa was _my_ girlfriend, and that was final. Anyone who challenged that fact would answer to me.

I walked her home after that, knowing I was going to get yelled at for keeping her out after dark again, but I went anyway so that none of the blame would get put on her. I bore it with a defiant face aimed at the ground and a mumbled an apology every interval here and there—not like I actually meant any of them. Asa was the mayor's daughter, and it wasn't like I had a huge problem with authority figures or something, and no offense to Asa's genes, but that guy was a real scumbag. I don't know why anyone even voted for him in the first place. The dude was a bastard! But at least he knew how to rake in enough money to take care of his family and the town, so it's not like I could actually outright call him out on his personality flaws… Besides, I was eight, and nobody listens to eight-year-olds…

When I got home, as usual, no one was there; it took a while for mom to catch the next ride back to the 'burbs after her job from the publishing company was finished, and she had to work overtime most nights. Sometimes she didn't get to come home at all. She was an editor, and though I didn't really understand the need for such things, she always came home eventually with interesting stories to tell me. But it seemed that it was one of those nights again…

I made sure the doors were locked, warmed up some cup ramen, and made my way up to my bedroom with a sigh. I could hear the crickets going full orchestra outside through my cracked window, and was grateful for the cool, night flavored breeze it offered since the air conditioning was on the fritz again. After shoveling down the ramen at warp speed without really tasting it, I flopped back on my bed, spread eagle, and stared at the ceiling. Boredom inevitably ensued.

It wasn't as if I could sleep, and I sure as _hell_ wasn't going to vedge in front of the TV like a loser… Sighing, and cringing at my own desperation, I reached over and grabbed my school bag, dumping its contents out in front of me. Papers, scraps of papers, doodles of my teachers and classmates, broken pencils… Yes, I was even bored enough—dare I say it—to attempt finishing homework…but something in the pile of useless yielded junk caught my eye, and I fingered the corner of the book curiously. Expunging it from its brethren of thereby named useless junk, I examined it with a cursory gaze, remembering the confrontation with my weirdo stalker earlier that day.

"The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, eh…?" My olive eyes scanned the nondescript cover dubiously, "…What a stupid name for a book."

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**So this is only the rough draft. **

**I need to go back and add more detail, but as far as the story goes so far, what do you think?**

**Also, this is NOT AU...not really. It still follows cannon plot for the most part.**


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